Building and Retaining Superstar Performers in the Workplace

What is the best way to build a superstar team? You can pay top market salary, offer unique incentives, incorporate flexible schedules, provide more benefits, or give employees the option to volunteer for a few hours in the community without a loss of pay. According to Forbes, all of these are frequently listed as ideal features of employment.

So, to attract and retain superstars, you need to do something, right? However, you may not have the budget to increase pay or offer more benefits, or you may not have the manpower to enable staff to work from home or leave to volunteer. So, what can you do that doesn’t cost a lot of extra money?

One of the top five things employees want in a company is to feel a sense of purpose. This is something employers can easily offer that will help superstars better connect to your business and want to improve and grow with the organization. Employee benefit management services can improve your business performance.

Employees want to feel that what they do every day for eight hours a day, five days and forty hours a week, matters. They want to know how they individually impact the bottom line. Leaders can explain cascading objectives and how a given employee directly impacts the end goal. When an employee understands the vision and their direct impact on it, they will feel a sense of responsibility and renewed desire to perform.

When it comes to managing your employees, having efficient systems in place is essential to keeping things running smoothly. These systems will basically be methods you have in place for things such as hiring, training, disciplining, and motivating employees so that these management tasks can be carried out in an organized and efficient manner. Below are three managing systems you need to have in place in your business.

Hiring and Training

Make sure you have a streamlined hiring process and make sure you execute it the same way every time. A good system will include resume review, references, a multiple interview process, possible personality and integrity assessments, and a probationary period. Hiring the right people can be tough and hiring the wrong people can be costly.

Consider using an experienced HR specialist or staffing company to ensure that you hire people who are assets. Designate a current employee for training new hires based on standards you set for the position. Pay this person a little extra per training if training is not their exclusive position.

Discipline

Have an employee handbook which outlines expectations for staff. This should include information on performance or productivity standards, dress code, and details about disciplinary action. Outline what kinds of incidents will cause disciplinary action to be taken and what can get you fired. Have employees sign a slip that can go into their hiring paperwork file that states that they’ve received the handbook.

Awards & Recognition

Encourage employees to achieve by having regular ways to recognize and award them. Celebrate major achievements as a team. For a personal touch, send birthday emails or celebrate monthly birthdays in the office. Make sure that employees know what opportunities are available for advancement through memos or email updates, and always try to promote, or hire for a better position, from within.

Another cost-effective way you can inspire superstars to perform optimally is to help them identify their top strengths. Tom Roth’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 offers a short quiz to pinpoint an individual performer’s top five strengths. The book also contains descriptions of each strength, so team players can learn about themselves as well as their teammates. This would make a great team-building exercise. Now that you know what employees value in an organization, you can look at your budget and prioritize.